# Question about old Star Trek episode **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 23, 2004, 5:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938 "2004-03-23T17:49:27Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 16\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Cliffy](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/59ef9b/32.png) [@Cliffy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cliffy)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 5:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/21 "2004-03-24T17:44:41Z")
> [@kunilou](#): > > With short hair and a blonde dye job she became Majel Barrett, better known as Nurse Chapel and Gene Roddenberry’s main squeeze I remember seeing an interview with Roddenberry once. He said that after the original pilot, the network suits were uncomfortable with the fact that the Enterprise had both an alien and a woman as senior mates. They told him he could keep one. “So I kept the alien and married the girl.” –Cliffy ---
**Author:** ![blowero](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/41988e/32.png) [@blowero](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/blowero)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 9:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/22 "2004-03-24T21:54:12Z")
> [@zev\_steinhardt](#): > > Of course, if Hunter returned for the regular series, the history of Star Trek would have been radically different. Hunter died in 1969 and so would not have been around for any movies. Without the movies, there may very well have never been a ST:TNG, DS9, Voyager or Enterprise. > > Zev Steinhardt You say that like it would have been a bad thing. ---
**Author:** ![ivylass](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/9de053/32.png) [@ivylass](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ivylass)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 10:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/23 "2004-03-24T22:50:20Z")
It is my understanding the network execs thought the pilot episode was too cerebral, so they had Roddenberry rework it. Did they also complain about Hunter, so Shatner replaced him? Note also Spock’s more emotional in The Menagerie…like the missing Klingon cranial plates in the DS9/TOS crossover, this is never explained… ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 10:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/24 "2004-03-24T22:54:33Z")
So far as I know, Hunter was replaced by Shatner only because he didn’t sign back up and the only cast member that NBC didn’t like was Majel Barrett’s Number One. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 11:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/25 "2004-03-24T23:13:16Z")
**Walloon** , to coin a phrase, thank you for the straight dope on Hunter’s death. Yes, I think the accident story has deliberately been positioned as a cover, as it is given out straigt-faced by many credible sources. BTW, who was his last wife who had her bio written by her daughter? And to use a bit of cruel humor–Hunter must have been pretty brain-dead in 1969 as I understand he lobbied HARD to get the role of Mike Brady! To other posters: I take the “too cerebral” label that Roddenberry often ascribed to the NBC brass when viewing _The Cage_ with an ocean-full of salt. As noted by others, they found it slow and disliked most of the actors (in particular, Majel Barrett), but really there is nothing so deep about this story that even an average “suit” of 1964 couldn’t understand. **The people with big buttheads are making Jeff Hunter have dreams and visions that seem real to him, and they want him to do the nasty with Susan Oliver**. What is so “cerebral” about that? Interesting topic, sorry to have continued the hijack. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![The\_Hamster\_King](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/8edcca/32.png) [@The\_Hamster\_King](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Hamster_King)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 11:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/26 "2004-03-24T23:38:43Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > But would Hunter have died if he had stayed on as Captain Pike in _Star Trek_? His premature death at 42 was caused in part by a drinking problem that started after his marriage broke up not long after he declined to film the second pilot episode that NBC requested; his wife had advised against doing it. Hunter was nearly broke when he died four years later. There’s actually an episode of TNG where the Enterprise gets sucked into a wormhole and emerges in an alternate universe where Jeffrey Hunter played Pike for five seasons and seven movies. Afterwards he had a long career as a soap-opera heart-throb and was eventually elected governor of California. This alternate universe is otherwise exactly like the normal TBG universe, except Patrick Swayze is the captain of the new alternate universe Enterprise instead of Patrick Stewart. And they’re all Nazis. ---
**Author:** ![Icerigger](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/icerigger/32/432_2.png) [@Icerigger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Icerigger)\ **Post date:** [March 24, 2004, 11:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/27 "2004-03-24T23:39:49Z")
According to the book **Inside Star Trek** by Herbert F. Solow and Robert H. Justman, Hunter’s wife pressured him into declining the role as Captain Pike feeling science fiction beneath him and as a movie star TV work was slumming. [http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671896288/qid=1080171007/sr=1-1/ref=sr\_1\_1/104-1443222-1895946?v=glance&s=books](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0671896288/qid=1080171007/sr=1-1/ref=sr_1_1/104-1443222-1895946?v=glance&s=books) The decision to ax Number One seems also to be a myth, NBC had no objections to a female second in command but felt Majel Barrett, Gene’s “girlfriend” was not up to the role. ---
**Author:** ![AncientHumanoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ancienthumanoid/32/278_2.png) [@AncientHumanoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AncientHumanoid)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 12:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/28 "2004-03-25T00:50:37Z")
> [@Aesiron](#): > > Since you seem to be the resident Enterprise expert, viva, is there any specific reason that Majel Roddenberry isn’t having anything to do with the show? Anything personal? She’s very busy with _Andromed_ and a new show that she’s shopping. She wasn’t even ever approached about _Enterprise_. Part of her [StarTrek.com chat](http://www.startrek.com/startrek/view/community/chat/archive/transcript/4605.html) from last month: Q: Why aren’t you in Enterprise? (Or are you going to be soon?) See, because if you were, then you would be in all the series and that would just be the coolest thing ever. —Amanda K. MB: Wouldn’t that be lovely? I would love to do it but I have not yet been asked. ---
**Author:** ![rjung](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/45deac/32.png) [@rjung](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/rjung)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/29 "2004-03-25T01:08:24Z")
> [@ivylass](#): > > Note also Spock’s more emotional in The Menagerie…like the missing Klingon cranial plates in the DS9/TOS crossover, this is never explained… I thought the canonical explaination (from one of the novels, anyway) is that Spock was still “green” when he was serving with Pike, and had not yet completely mastered control over his emotional human half. The emotional outbursts were follies of his youth, as it were. ---
**Author:** ![vivalostwages](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/d07c76/32.png) [@vivalostwages](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/vivalostwages)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 1:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/30 "2004-03-25T01:50:16Z")
I didn’t mean to suggest that she didn’t want anything to do with it, just that things haven’t gone that way. NX 01 doesn’t have a talking computer, so there’s not much of a chance of voiceover work for her. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 2:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/31 "2004-03-25T02:06:10Z")
> [@Sir Rhosis](#): > > BTW, who was his last wife who had her bio written by her daughter? His third wife was actress Emily McLaughlin, who starred on _General Hospital_ for 27 years. They married only three months before his death. Why did Hunter want _The Brady Bunch_ so bad? Because he was broke. ---
**Author:** ![Ephemera](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8baadc/32.png) [@Ephemera](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ephemera)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 3:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/32 "2004-03-25T03:47:01Z")
I wasn’t trying to imply there was some feud between Majel and Bermaga… I was just curious if there was. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/33 "2004-03-25T22:43:30Z")
> [@Walloon](#): > > His third wife was actress Emily McLaughlin, who starred on _General Hospital_ for 27 years. They married only three months before his death. > > Why did Hunter want _The Brady Bunch_ so bad? Because he was broke. This site [obituariestoday.com](http://www.obituariestoday.com/Obituaries/ObitShow.cfm?Obituary_ID=)… says it was because his career was stalled, but money probably played into it. Love Sherwood Schwartz’s brilliant reasoning for not casting him. I, myself, am far too handsome to be belieivable as a CNC Machinist! 😃 This site also repeats the explosion/damaged vertebra/concussion story of his death. I hope the link works–when I brought up the address it trailed off with the ellipsis, but that doesn’t seem right. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Rhosis](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d9b06d/32.png) [@Sir\_Rhosis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Rhosis)\ **Post date:** [March 25, 2004, 10:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/34 "2004-03-25T22:48:34Z")
My link gets you to the main site. I guess just type in his name or death date, which was 27 May 1969. I got the site by typing “Jeffrey Hunter Brady Bunch” into Google. Sir Rhosis ---
**Author:** ![digs](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/digs/32/14889_2.png) [@digs](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/digs)\ **Post date:** [March 26, 2004, 5:01am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/35 "2004-03-26T05:01:28Z")
_Margaret Mead? in a plane with the lass from the Menagerie? small world eh?_ Indeed. I just read the Jeffrey Hunter obituary. My mom (77 now) had a friend in High School named Henry MacKinnies. Checking the dates/places, I see it was … Jesus/Capt. Pike/almost Mike Brady. ---
**Author:** ![Walloon](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/fbc32d/32.png) [@Walloon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walloon)\ **Post date:** [March 27, 2004, 7:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938/36 "2004-03-27T19:53:13Z")
**Sir Rhosis** , I had a good laugh when I read the biographical profile of Jeffrey Hunter that you linked to. It was clearly adapted (entire sentences) from a biographical profile on him that I had written and published elsewhere. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/question-about-old-star-trek-episode/235938.md?page=1)